I’m admittedly a creature of habit when I travel, especially in a place like Paris where I have clear favorites. This Thanksgiving, though, I decided to switch things up and explore other areas, like Belleville and Ménilmontant in the northwest of the city, with its busy street life and the amazing vistas, and south into the 13th arrondissement, around Tolbiac, with its clustering of Cambodian and Vietnamese cuisine (my fav).

All decked out for Christmas under the rotunda at Galeries Lafayette:

Earlier this year when I first discovered the Jack Russell brand during a birthday trip to Paris, I managed to hold myself back from buying a bag for myself. For the past six months I’ve been thinking about that bag, so this time, I couldn’t resist. I stopped into the tiny, almost-impossible-to-find, atelier tucked into Rue d’Alger near the Tuileries, where the staff was surprised to see a visitor from the USA! They were so excited to talk about the brand and hand stamp a monogrammed luggage tag (pictured) for my new bag. Expect big things from Jack Russell!

I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my travels but nothing was as unexpected as coming upon surfers while wandering around the landlocked city this week. It turns out surfers have been riding the waves of the narrow Eisbach River here for decades.

Living in New York, it’s easy to forget there is a massive city called Philadelphia just an hour away. A quick day trip reminded me that although Philly has interesting architecture and beautiful parks, I just don’t fully “get” the city.

My love affair with Cathay Pacific was only made stronger with my trip with this week, flying New York-Vancouver-Hong Kong-Singapore, and then back Singapore-Hong Kong-New York (on their marathon 15 1/2 hour HKG-JFK nonstop, which was simply amazing).

Approaching Changi Airport, over Indonesia, with Singapore Strait at center and Singapore on the horizon:

No trip would be complete without getting photo evidence of everything I ate:

The sublime noodle bar at The Wing, one of Cathay’s lounges at Hong Kong International Airport, where I just had to try every option on the menu:

My friend Ed Salvato – the ultimate gay travel guru – has teamed up with Billy Kolber (also no slouch in the gay travel department, as founder of Out & About) to create ManAboutWorld magazine, a new travel publication for the iPad. I’m thrilled to be contributing to it occasionally; here’s a piece on Vancouver I wrote for the November edition. For the full effect be sure to download the App and see the magazine for yourself!

NOW/NEXT: VANCOUVER

The beauty of Vancouver can drive a grown man to cry. With its forest of glass towers nestled where the mountains of the Canadian West rise and fall into the Pacific, Vancouver is one of the world’s most beautiful spots – but somehow still off the radar of most travelers.

An influx of money and Asian immigrants has changed the look of Vancouver over the past three decades from self-described backwater to cosmopolitan global city. At its heart, though, it remains a genuinely down-to-earth place (the recent debut of “Real Housewives of Vancouver” notwithstanding) rife for exploring.

Befitting the region’s progressive reputation, Vancouver is also home to a sizable gay population, which hoists its rainbow flag in the Davie Village section of the West End (not to be confused with West Vancouver, to the north, or the West Side, to the south).

Get your bearings at ground zero, near the corner of Thurlow and Davie Streets, but don’t be alarmed if the crowds happen to be thin: locals in this outdoorsy place are as likely to be found at the neighborhood’s many lively watering holes as they are doing what Vancouverites do best – being out and active in their slice of paradise.

Exercise is religion here, but so is good food. A pair of upcoming events is perfect excuse (as if you needed one) to plan a winter visit. January brings the two-week Dine Out Vancouver Festival, touted as the largest food festival in the country, with more than 200 restaurants offering up their diverse menus on the cheap. The huge Vancouver International Wine Festival follows in February and is a tippler’s time to try the surprising fruits of the Okanagan, the wine-producing area in the province’s interior, and a variety of other vintners from around the globe.

Without question, my travel weakness is Paris. It’s tough to go to Europe and resist its pull — so after a great Thanksgiving in Bavaria, I hopped the TGV from Munich to Gare de l’Est for a few days of proper R & R.

Last year I started a new tradition of going to Europe for Thanksgiving. Last year was Rome and this year was Munich to visit a friend, and to do two of my favorite things: stay at the Louis Hotel, and have lunch at the incomparable Brenner! Munich is a lovely city, especially this time of year. (But 24 hours is usually plenty of time for it.)

I spent the week in Abu Dhabi, and unfortunately, even in October, the temperatures are so searing it’s hard to muster the motivation to go outside for very long. Since I last visited three summers ago, the pace of development has soared, with the cityscape along the seaside corniche almost unrecognizable. When a friend asked me what it’s like here, the only descriptor that came to mind was: “Abu Dhabi is living proof that money can, in fact, buy anything.”